guys like us, we had it made

It seems like when you want to understand the reasons for things, and for attitudes, if you listen and let the circumstances and their subtexts sort of wash over you, sometimes the desires, pain, grudges, goals, and viewpoints that you observe, will form into an organized picture, where, once you see it, you realize the probable origin of people wanting to push, badger, complain, "pick."


It comes together like puzzle pieces.  And it feels like an epiphany.  I guess we don't all have to be Sigmund Freud to see that some attitudes which come towards us, are not about us; they're about stuff the Attitude Person already had in their experience before they ever saw us.


Stepping back, for distance & perspective, and observing patterns helps you see it.


This train of thought made me remember an episode of "All In The Family" that I haven't seen in a really long time, where -- well I don't remember the whole plot-line, but one aspect of it was, Mike Stivic is just exasperated-to-the-max with Archie Bunker -- why does Archie pick on him so relentlessly, right?











Then Edith Bunker talks to Mike, and explains some of Archie's viewpoint and life experiences and helps Mike to see that Archie's anger isn't at Mike, it's at some frustrations which Mike has come to represent, for Archie.


And then Archie comes home and when Mike sees him, he gets emotional and cries out in a tear-edged, desperately sincere tone, "Arch!  I - UNDERSTAND!"  And he hugs Archie. 


It's the punch-line -- or "punch-Moment" -- the audience cracks up, and Archie of course has on his trademark "what-the-hell?!" sort of deadpan expression, as he is clutched in the powerful, "Love-All-Mankind" embrace of his son-in-law, (who's often otherwise known on the show as "Get-Away-From-Me-Meathead" ...[his "Indian-name"-ha ...]).





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"All in the Family"


an American situation-comedy, broadcast for the first time on January 12, 1971, on CBS.


Produced by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin


Number One in Nielson ratings, 1971 to 1976 -- the first TV series to top these ratings five years straight -- this accomplishment was matched by "The Cosby Show" in the 80s


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